Adolescent Substance Use and Other Illegal Behaviors and Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice System Involvement: Findings From a US National Survey

We used data from a national survey to examine arrest rate disparities between African American and White adolescents (aged 12–17 years; n = 6725) in relation to drug-related and other illegal behaviors. African American adolescents were less likely than Whites to have engaged in drug use or drug selling, but were more likely to have been arrested. Racial disparities in adolescent arrest appear to result from differential treatment of minority youths and to have long-term negative effects on the lives of affected African American youths.Racial disparities in the juvenile and criminal justice systems are important in both criminology and public health. African American youths have higher rates of arrest and detention than White youths.1–4 The US governmental policies known collectively as the War on Drugs have contributed significantly to increases in rates of arrest and incarceration, especially of African Americans,5–13 although rates of substance use and abuse among African Americans are either similar to14^,15 or even lower than those of Whites.16Two main hypotheses address the overrepresentation of racial/ethnic minorities in the juvenile and criminal justice systems: (1) the “differential offending” hypothesis (that this overrepresentation generally reflects racial and ethnic differences in the incidence, seriousness, and persistence of engagement in delinquent and criminal behavior) and (2) the “differential treatment” hypothesis (that this overrepresentation is attributable to inequities—intended or unintended—in justice system practices as they affect particular populations).2,17–20We used data from a nationally representative survey of youths to examine the relationship of substance use and other illegal behaviors with arrest among African American and White youths to better understand racial disparities in arrest by testing whether the differential offending hypothesis or the differential treatment hypothesis best explains observed disparities, and by examining the longitudinal impact of arrest in adolescence on educational attainment.